Placed in the Abyss

The Horror of Magical Maximalism

Howard, Jeff ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9077-1025 (2026) Placed in the Abyss. In: Horror in Games Conference, July 7-9, Falmouth University.

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Abstract / Summary

Two contrary impulses (and two accompanying forms of horror) clash at the heart of the contemporary tabletop RPG. On the one hand, a minimalist design philosophy prevails throughout the Old School Roleplaying (OSR) movement, in which rules and mechanics are stripped back, sometimes to one-page RPG’s. The magic of these systems is equally compressed, consisting of simple spell lists. At the other extreme are maximalist RPG’s, in which complex systems proliferate. The intricate, nested mechanics of maximalist RPG’s simulate the game world at sweeping scale and in granular detail, including the mysterious, cosmic workings of magic itself.

In this context, I use “maximalist magic” to refer to sorcery that is so detailed and simulated as to be overwhelming, evoking cosmic vertigo. A recent example is Jay Dragon’s Seven Part Pact (a work-in-progress as of 2026), a game in which each player plays one of seven wizards representing different aspects of reality, each of which is tracked through playing a self-contained board game. Seven Part Pact is anticipated by the vast cosmic magical RPG Invisible Sun, as well as the French surrealist RPG Rêve de Dragon, in which each act of spellcasting its own board game in which the player whispers into the ear of a dreaming dragon to alter the dream.

Such an approach creates an abstract, philosophical horror through nested systems that approach infinite recursion or mise en abyme. Magic in games is well studied, with Howard’s Game Magic (2014) providing foundations for Mikael Sebag’s emphasis on enchantment (2023) and Andrej Kapcar’s emphasis on the way that magic has influenced real-world occultism (2026). However, the concept of maximalist magic (and its connection to horror) has been under-explored. This talk shows how fractalised systems of maximalist RPG’s gesture past enchantment and toward a sublime that borders on terror.

Item Type:	Conference Item (Lecture)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	horror, games, Seven Part Pact, Invisible Sun, Reve de Dragon, Reve: The Dream Ouroboros, maximalism, minimalism, game design
Subjects:	Computing & Data Science > Game Design Philosophy & Psychology
Department:	Games Academy
Depositing User:	Jeff Howard
Date Deposited:	03 Nov 2026 12:00
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2026 12:00
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6647

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